The 3rd Annual Baxter Turkey Trot takes place in the Baxter Village Community right here in Fort Mill, SC. It's more of a charity "gathering" then a race. Everyone is encouraged to bring canned goods and clothes to donate in exchange for the race. Right, there is no entry fee. It's a free "race". You get a bib number and they have a course and they tell you when to start. So, since there is no timing, is it really a race? I'll leave that up to you.
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| Race Director and Baxter Activity Coordinator |
We parked right next to the Baxter Town Hall and pool. They said they had 600 people signed up, but I believe that most people walked from their houses. They had a 1 mile run/walk, and a trail run, in addition to the 3 mile course. We milled around some. I didn't even do a warm up. They made some announcements, and we all mosied on over for the start.
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| Heel Strike Big or Go Home |
We crammed into this side street and started with an immediate right turn down Richard's Crossing. I run this road all the time, like once or twice a week. We had a guy on a mountain bike escorting the 'leaders'. My strategy was to just go as fast as I had to to stay with the leaders. Yes I had a strategy. Yes, it's basically an untimed fun run. Yes I tried to stay with the leader. Don't Judge.
The first mile felt a little awkward: a 6:01 with no warmup. But it was slightly downhill. They guy in front was talking with the mountain bike escort guy. I'm sure they knew each other. The runner had an M-Dot tattoo on his calf. I saw him prerace with his Ironman Florida paraphernalia on. That was pretty much motivation alone.
I kinda got into a groove in the second mile, and it wasn't so bad. It felt like the 2nd half of that mile was downhill. We came through 2 miles sub 12 minutes. I was a little surprised to be within a few yards of the leader. But soon after the 2M mark, we hit a hill to start climbing back toward the finish. At this point I thought, well here is where he's gonna drop me. I tried to hang tough, and he really wasn't pulling away much. We slowed on that last mile quite a bit.
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| Coming to the final stretch |
We kept coming up the hill and he just wasn't pulling away from me. We came around the curve close to where the finish was. I wasn't sure if we were going to make a turn and loop toward the finish, because we were only 2.7 miles in. I got right up on the tattoo's guy hip and the bike didn't make a turn. We headed straight for the finish. So with like 10 yards to go I strode past him and crossed the finish line first.
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| Making 'The Move' |
I only had 2.88 miles on my watch, but that was it. What do you want for a fun run? I walked for a little bit and then started heading back down the course to see my wife coming up.
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| #tonguewag |
She's was having a great race and needed some cheering going up that last hill. She looked good and would have had a 5K PR had the race actually been a 5K.
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| Wife finishing |
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| The Three of Us are at a Lot of Races Together |
Afterwards, we got some water and talked. It was a really nice morning, so we just enjoyed it. Soon it was time to head back to the house and check on the Turkeys. We had 2 birds going as we were hosting 19 people for Turkey Day. The Baxter Turkey Trot was a great start to the day. Gobble Gobble!
